Fluff ‘n’ Stuff
Contrasts and extremes help establish fashion trends, which is why designers here are endorsing a spring of some of the softest, most romantic and frothy clothes that have been around for quite a while. But this time around, their artistry is as much about styling the clothes into an artful compromise of folkloric and modern. If you have a driver’s license, you may be too old for the new look.
With tiers of ruffles, billowing sleeves and dozens of peasant blouses, many designers have jumped enthusiastically onto the milk wagon and headed for the pastoral countryside. Others have grabbed the reins and headed to India and Asia or wandered the mountains elsewhere like gypsies. The less peripatetic took one look at the cozy muslins and crinkled, washed cottons and decided to stay home and cocoon in oversized tops, drawstring pants and airy silk wrap dresses.
Much as we may like the fantasy that romantic and delicate clothes provide, they also deliver the vexing problem of context. The sweet, happy feel of the colorful prints and yards of ruffles gives them a decidedly young and casual feel that can seem a little too cheery and incongruous, given recent circumstances. Most women can’t drift around the office with yards of chiffon dusting off the fax machine. And most designers want to sell clothes for more than just special occasions or Saturday get-togethers. That handy tool--contrast--is trying once again to usher delicate clothes into quarters where they might not always be welcomed.
To keep the new featherweight clothes from floating away, designers used the clothing equivalent of a paperweight. In recent seasons, aggressive, heavy leather jackets landed on the delicate shoulders of lacy peasant blouses. Imitators of Tom Ford’s current fall Yves Saint Laurent collection of bohemians also have adopted heavy belts and boots as anchors for the froth. For next spring, the idea continues in collections with clunky shoes, big tote bags or layers of belts, jackets or sweaters as ballast.
Though their philosophies are vastly different, the radical Miuccia Prada and the soothing Alberta Ferretti both proposed that skirts and dresses that look like lingerie or fairy-tale costumes can get serious by adding a tailored blazer or cardigan. Ferretti, whose trademark negligee-soft silk dresses are now much in vogue, updated them with heavy, dark blazers or coats. Some of her most convincing outfits were paired with structured trousers or employed swirls of beading, fabric rosettes or strands of ravaged ruffles to help tack down the featherweight chiffon dresses and tops.
At Prada’s Miu Miu, customers (who won’t be much over 16) will have to learn how to mix wooden-heel platform shoes with dour gray cardigans or scoop-neck vests into a wardrobe of ditsy floral print shirts and enormously full petticoat skirts embellished with folkloric designs. And don’t forget to belt it somewhere. For her secondary line, Prada seems well aware of the challenge that petticoats and ruffles pose to young women, who are new to the confines of work-world wardrobes. Right in the middle of a parade of high-collared eyelet prairie blouses popped in a crisp and tailored brown pantsuit. It was not until a few tablecloth-print full skirts had streamed past that Prada illustrated more clearly how to blend the two looks and to add lacy tutus to our everyday clothes. Just wear it with a navy turtleneck sweater, or put a blushing pink turtleneck under a matching eyelet camisole and march out the door in tailored pants.
Miu Miu’s sometimes awkward look attempts to clean up the peasant-blouse-and-dirty-blue-jean look that fashion editors packed in their suitcases this season. The trick is pairing a blazer atop a fluffy skirt without looking like a shivering prom date who just borrowed her boyfriend’s suit coat.
Some of the best jacket alternatives came from Marni designer Consuela Castiglioni. She topped her peasant frocks (many in dish-towel prints) with cleverly detailed twill jackets that could replace the ubiquitous jean jackets of late. Her coats had subtle gathers on pocket edges or darts at the elbow, and came in soft pastels. Vests, long absent in fashion, reappeared as a gold-studded leather piece, a rustic crewel-embroidered accent or a shimmering, sequined accessory to a muslin dress. The girlish casualness of the clothes was offset by a touch of sparkle that made them less passive. Glittery net overlaid a dotted dress, while one of the season’s most imaginative purses got editors drooling--a floppy brown leather pouch bag covered all over with rhinestone swags, faux gems and shiny trinkets.
Purses were the bright spot of Karl Lagerfeld’s Fendi collection. He made flat, irregular crescent totes with hand stitching, fringe or embossed details and miniature, beaded boxes big enough for a pack of Wrigley’s. He--or his stylists--were infatuated with an Etruscan warrior theme that was reflected in the heavily embossed harness boots and sandals worn with a flurry of chiffon, knit or leather skirts, dresses and blouses layered under and over each other.
In a similar vein, Roberto Cavalli toured the jungle, again, for his animal and botanical prints that were ruffled into sheer dresses, skirts and blouses and topped with distressed metallic jackets. Cavalli was one of the few showing here to continue offering denim, though his blue jeans were intricately cut out, beaded, appliqued, rhinestoned and embroidered with crewel. While other designers have allowed ruffles to convey a virginal tone, Cavalli let huge swirls of them bounce along the knees of a vacuum-tight knit dress for a sexy flamenco feel.
The other new oversize silhouettes and soft fabrics have become a challenge to designers who have long toiled within the strict confines of either their own philosophy or the rigid ones of minimalism. Donatella Versace took one look at those baggy shapes and said, “Basta!”-- enough! She cut red or purple eel skin separates close and tight, but gave a nod to the softer mood with a series of white dresses, skirts and tops decorated with narrow strips of white ribbons. In one of the week’s sexiest collections, her signature Versace line emphasized corset lacing, which crisscrossed over the open backs of fringed leather jackets and up the instep of high, pointy shoes.
Giorgio Armani seemed the obvious candidate to lead the way back to looser clothes with panache. His Emporio Armani collection was overrun by his yard-long fringe “grass skirts” and fabric leis that would have been silly even on a hula dancer. Had he stayed on the ship with his neat group of sailor-inspired navy jackets and white blouses, no one would have been tempted to mutiny.
Emilio Pucci also looked to the water for a theme. The distinctive Pucci prints showed up on all manner of terry cloth, silk and cotton separates and accessories fit for a day at the beach.
Adding whimsy to already cute clothes can easily backfire. The Moschino show opened with an interpretation of a Chanel suit, paired with a T-shirt created by Lagerfeld, who also designs Chanel. The French slogan on the T-shirt read, roughly translated, “Moschino is not a style--it’s a pastiche.” True enough. Moschino gathered all the season’s trends into one outfit or another, offering women the chance to immerse or lightly sample chiffon draping, tailoring or trompe l’oeil in a single outfit. The collection may not have pushed fashion forward, but at least it reminded us that we haven’t lost our sense of humor.
If you’re laughing now, wait until you see it on the street next spring.
